We soon discovered why everything was so green. The rain started just after we arrived, and continued for the next couple of days. If that wasn't shocking enough for us, the temperature dropped to around 12 degrees at night. We all dug out our winter pajamas, raincoats and beanies and wondered where our lovely balmy tropical evenings had disappeared to. We did our best to see the sights around Atherton - some waterfalls and picturesque towns, and a tour of the big dairy in Malanda. Was interesting to see all the milk being bottled, but the free milkshake at the end was the big hit.
The rain got the better of us, so we decided to head further north to Cooktown. We camped at the character-filled Lion's Den Pub about 20km south of the town. It was set in the forest on beautiful green grass and backed on to a lovely creek where we swam (apparently no crocs there). The pub itself was a great old place filled with memorabilia. Unfortunately, however, the rain continued but we did our best to have a look around Cooktown. It had certainly changed a lot since we were there nearly 15 years ago - all the roads are now sealed and it has a much more refined feel to it.
The highlight of these two weeks came on our last day in Cooktown. We were fortunate enough to go on an aboriginal cultural tour with Aboriginal Elder, Willie Gordon. We were part of a small group that met on aboriginal land about 30km north of Cooktown, and spent four hours walking through pristine rainforest viewing rock art sites and hearing all the stories behind them. Along the way we also learnt a bit about bush tucker, and the kids even learnt to do their own rock art and how to be lizard-whisperers.
Photos below are-
1: Cathedral Fig in Atherton
2: enjoying a milkshake after our tour of the dairy
3: kids tee-pee at Lion's Den (Cooktown)
4: sitting at the bar at Lion's Den
5-9: Aboriginal experience with Willie Gordon
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